Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-10-13
Georgia's Convict Coal Mines.

Escapes are not frequent. The last
one was in April. A railroad man
named Charley Rose climbed upward
1oO feet through an air shaft which
was IN places seven feet in diameter.
how he accomplished the feat mysti-
lied the officials. He could not have
reached from side to side. The theory
is that he must have taken piece of
scantling with him, or perhaps two
pieces, and worked his way upward.
In places the side wall was so smooth
that the convict had to stop and dig
inches for his fingers and toes in the
slate. His absence was discovered in
couple of hours, but in that time he
had reached the top of the shaft and
disappeared in the woods. A man
who was smart enough to do such an
act was able to escape the hounds.
The dogs were put on his track, but
after several attempts they gave up
baff1ed. There is a way of DESTROYING
trail, and possibly Rose had learned
it. A bundle of brush dragged after
the fugitive will destroy the trail
more etfectually than any other trick
that's known. 1t is more effective than
climbing trees or wading in brooks
Rose has never been recaptured. He
was last heard of at Fort Worth, Tex.
He is the man who planned to hitch an
engine to pay-car at Atlanta, haul
the paymaster out the road few
miles, and rob him.
There was curious escape some
time previous to the case just men,
toned. A convict whose term was
within eighteen months of expiration,
and for whom a movement to secure q
pardon was under way walked out of
camp one afternoon, having been given
the privileges of a trusty. This man
had been an exemplary prisoner. On
one occasion the guard who had this
convict and others under his charge
upon some outside work got drunk
and fell asleep. The good convict
promptly grasped the situation and
the guards gun, marshaled the other
convicts in line and marched them into
camp. He received many thanks for
his honesty, and everybody said he
must be pardoned, but weeks slipped
by without the arrival of the papers,
and one day the good convict walked
out into the forest and didn't return.
1t is probable that he argued that he
had earned what little time remained,
in which view the sentiment of the
camp sustained HIM, for no desperate
effort was made to overtake HIM
Trailing the escaped convicts with
the dogs is not the savage work which
Northern people might suppose from
their familiarity with the dead wall
pictures of Uncle Toms Cabin"
Bloodhounds are not used, put power
ful-legged, long-nosed, amiable-look-
ing dogs, with immense tapping ears
and bullying foreheads. These hounds
are good for nothing but to follow the
trail. They bay as they strike the
scent, and they make the woods ring
when they overtake the fugitive, but
they never bite. They are not even
good watch-dogs. While they possess
in marvellous degree the faculty of
following the scent, they have TO be
kept in training, and this is done by
sending trusty out at frequent inttr-
walls to make trail, over which fnc
dogs are sent. The convict goes into
the forest, climbs trees, jumps from
rock to rock, and tries to evade the
dogs until the days lesson is consid-
cred sufficient. The rest of the time
the hounds loaf around the camp and
enjoy life They are expert one-idea
dogs.-St. Louis Gtobe-Dean0cr0t.